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Gratiaen goes to Road from Elephant Pass
By Ruhanie Perera
'The Road from Elephant Pass' by Nihal de Silva won the Gratiaen Prize 2003 last night. Short-listed for the country's premier award for creative writing in English were Afdhel Aziz's China Bay Blues, Nihal de Silva's Road From Elephant Pass, Mallika Jayasinghe's An Immigrant's Diary, Sunethra Rajakarunanayake's Sambol+ and M. Somasunderam's The Rubaiyat Of Macbeth Daggers. The panel of judges headed by Priya David included Shermal Wijewardene and Lakshman Gunasekera.

The H. A. I. Goonetileke Prize for translation was not awarded. In the award's 11-year history, this is the first time a separate category for translations, both published and unpublished works from Sinhala and Tamil to English, had been included.

The prize is of equal value to the Gratiaen Prize of Rs. 100,000 and is awarded in memory of the Gratiaen Trust's first Chairman, who was instrumental in forming the principles and culture under which the trust is run. The judges for this category were Prof. Ratna Handurukande, Dr. Carmen Wickramage and Dr. M. A. M. Nuhuman.

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